Development Plans Outlined For Old Utah Mill Site

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OREM, Utah (AP) — Developers have announced detailed plans for a 1,700-acre master-planned community at the site of the old Geneva Steel Mill in Utah County that is projected to have 26,000 residents.

Anderson Development officials said Friday that the project in the town of Vineyard will include a major town center, 7,600 residential units, 2 million square feet of retail space, 3.5 million square feet of office space and 5 million square feet of industrial space.

In all, 11 million square feet of available space will support 20,000 jobs, the company said. The old Geneva site is the last remaining parcel of its size within Utah County.

Plans also call for the Larry H. Miller Group of Companies to build a Megaplex Theater that will serve as a major anchor of the development.

It will include a five story IMAX screen and 13 digital theaters. It also will accommodate up to 3,000 people and create 100 new full- and part-time jobs.

Day’s Market officials announced they will build a grocery store, and Utah Valley University officials said they have an option to buy 125 more acres in the community. The university earlier purchased 100 acres for new classrooms and intramural fields.

“It is rare you get to stand at the crossroads of something great,” said Vincent Mikolay, who represented Gov. Gary Herbert and the Governor’s Office of Economic Development at a public open house Friday. “Change is inevitable, but progress is optional.”

The project will grow from a small agricultural bedroom community once populated by a few families. Vineyard Mayor Randy Farnworth said he remembers driving around the community on his first day in office and counting the number of houses.

“We only had 20 houses in Vineyard,” he told The Daily Herald of Provo.

Developer Gerald Anderson said he has faced hundreds of thousands of obstacles on the project, but it’s ready to get off the ground after hazardous waste cleanup of more than 900 acres and support from local officials.

“This is the largest privately owned brownfield site in the U.S,” he told The Daily Herald.

The Geneva Steel Mill along the east shore of Utah Lake was permanently shut down in 2002. It was built with federal funds during World War II.